Fact Check: Did Trump score 73 on an IQ test during his first year at New York Military Academy?

WASHINGTON, DC: A years-old claim about President Donald Trump's IQ has resurfaced online. According to it, the Republican leader reportedly scored 73 on an IQ test during his first year at New York Military Academy.

The claim first gained traction in May 2019 and has once again sparked online chatter, particularly in late August 2025, as social media users revisit the claim. But how much of it is true? Let’s find out the facts.

Trump's IQ test controversy

Recent Facebook posts have circulated an image styled like a newspaper article, telling the story of William Askew Jr, who allegedly discovered President Donald Trump’s IQ test results. According to the narrative, Askew found the document while cleaning out the Brooklyn apartment of his late father, who reportedly worked at the New York Military Academy (NYMA).

The text in the image reads, "Trump IQ test results discovered in former NYMA employee's closet The result: 73 The results of an IQ test that President Donald Trump allegedly took during his first year at New York Military Academy have been discovered in a file box in a closet in Brooklyn. According to the test results, Trump's IQ is 73."

It continues, "The document, currently in the process of being authenticated, was discovered Thursday by William Askew, Jr. as he was cleaning out his late father's apartment."

Askew is quoted as saying, "Dad was the school counselor at NYMA from 1955 to 1985. He didn't administer these tests, but he was in charge of collecting them and sending them to the grading office."

The post claims that Askew also provided documents and photos verifying his father’s employment at the academy during the time Trump attended. "I don’t think this should be news to anybody," Askew allegedly said. "The guy’s clearly a total moron."

Trump’s IQ has sparked debate before. In April 2013, he defended himself in a post on X (formerly Twitter), saying, "I know some of you may think l'm tough and harsh but actually I'm a very compassionate person (with a very high IQ) with strong common sense."

No credible evidence for Trump's IQ test score of 73

Although the claim about Donald Trump’s IQ has circulated online for years, updated research confirms it is false. Snopes reported that no credible sources, neither newspapers nor archives, have ever documented Trump scoring 73 on an IQ test. Additionally, no verified IQ test results for Trump have surfaced in any public records.

Trump’s Truth, a website that archives his posts from his social media platform, Truth Social, contains no references to his IQ. Similarly, no legitimate news reports exist on Newspapers.com, Google, or other archives bearing the headline shown in the viral image.

Investigators traced the black-and-white photographs in the image back to genuine sources, but discovered they were miscaptioned. The image labeled “Askew today” actually comes from Adobe Stock, not from any verifiable source linked to the alleged whistleblower.

The photo described as Askew’s father shows Lawrence Hanson, who served as principal of Grand Forks Central High School in North Dakota in 1950, not a school counselor at NYMA. 

Snopes also interviewed Jack Serafin, a former NYMA student whose time at the academy overlapped with Trump’s. Serafin said he never took an IQ test at the school and had no memory of such testing being administered.

“The only testing criteria I remember was kind of an SAT for admittance to a prep school that I took prior to applying. This did not occur at NYMA, but at another venue, and was part of my application process,” he explained.

Serafin attended NYMA from 1962 to 1967, stayed an extra year to improve his scores, and maintained close ties with the academy afterward, partly because his mother worked as a nurse there for several years.

Regarding the article’s mention of William Askew, Serafin added, “I have no recollection of a 'William Askew' during that time period. He is not listed in my yearbooks as being involved.”